Those fees hotels tack on? Starting July 1, add Las Vegas ' Golden Nugget to the list of accommodations that do that. The good news is that the Golden Nugget's fee is lower than many others on the Strip. The Golden Nugget, the only downtown property to consistently get a four-diamond rating from AAA, is calling its extra charge a “Fremont Street Experience Fee.” Except for New Year's Eve, the Fremont Street Experience is a free attraction. “It isn't free to us,” said Amy Chasey, the Golden Nugget's vice president of marketing.

A top Los Angeles County lawman wants judges to issue more “split sentences” so state felons being held in local jails under prison realignment must also serve a period of probation. Without that, Chief of Probation Jerry Powers told county supervisors Tuesday, officials have no ability to make sure the inmates get into substance abuse treatment and other programs once released from behind bars. Powers' comments came as he joined with public health officials in a progress report on the realignment program.

The price of extreme weather events continues to rise. Superstorm Sandy and the ongoing drought made 2012 the second costliest weather and climate disaster year since 1980, racking up more than $110 billion in damage. According to the National Climatic Data Center , there were 11 events that each caused more than $1 billion in damage. The disasters--seven severe weather and tornado events, two tropical cyclones, and the yearlong drought and its associated wildfires - killed more than 300 people combined.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is redesigning the Gmail inbox to ease some of the frustration of sorting through emails on the desktop and on mobile devices. A new version of Gmail automatically groups and then delivers incoming emails in five different categories -- primary, social, promotions, updates and forums. The idea is to be able to see what's new in your inbox at a glance. It's a feature that many of Gmail's more than 425 million users, overwhelmed by the daily onslaught of messages, have been clamoring for. "We get a lot of different types of email: messages from friends, social notifications, deals and offers, confirmations and receipts, and more.

UCLA's spring game Saturday was going to cost UCLA students $7 for the bus ride to the Rose Bowl. Then Bruins Coach Jim Mora stepped in. And then athletic department officials rethought the matter. Mora had volunteered to pay for students' bus fare to the game, Josh Rebholz , UCLA associate athletic director of development, said on his Twitter account Wednesday night. On Thursday afternoon, athletic department officials decided to pick up the tab for the trip to the Rose Bowl.

For more than half of my 38 years in the news business, I've been a member of a union, though I'm not currently. And my late father was a proud Teamster for decades. So I appreciate the goods that unions deliver to nearly 15 million members in the United States: living wages and good benefits. Workplace safety. A measure of job security. And protection against management abuse. In other words, don't count me among those who vilify organized labor, which in many parts of the country offers the best hope for hanging on to a place in the middle class.

CODY, Wyo. - For many, the federal budget ax that fell last month has meant a few nicks here and there. For Joe Kondelis, it's sliced a lot deeper. After stewing for days, the 53-year-old opened his wallet and delivered a $2,000 check to the Cody Chamber of Commerce to help pay for snowplowing at Yellowstone National Park. It wasn't easy. Cash is scarce once Yellowstone shuts down for the winter. But after automatic spending cuts idled the National Park Service plows and threatened to delay opening day for two weeks - two weeks that could cost his beer distributorship $100,000 in sales - Kondelis felt he had no choice.

A decent whistle costs about a buck and weighs practically nothing. Had one been carried by the two young adults who spent four days lost in the Trabuco Canyon area, it could have saved thousands of dollars in search and rescue costs; it might have saved the pair from trips to the hospitals. It might have even prevented one rescuer from being injured in a fall. Reading the comment boards on the stories about the college students who got lost in Holy Jim Canyon, a side canyon to Trabuco, on Easter Day - aside from the judgmental buffoons who have decided that the young man is an obviously shifty sort because he wears earrings and is thus inadequate to the task of hiking - I see a lot of knowledgeable head-shaking among hikers, lists of the items no hiker should be without.

WASHINGTON - When it comes to the nation's debt, payback time might be here. Years of low tax rates and rising federal spending, amplified by the devastating economic effect of the Great Recession, have driven the U.S. borrowing tab to more than $16 trillion from less than $1 trillion in 1981. Deficit reduction has become the dominant issue in Washington. The first major tax increase since 1993 took place last month. And large automatic spending cuts - $1.2 trillion over the next decade - are set to kick in Friday.

When New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski throws a Super Bowl party, he spares no expense. For this year's bowl bash, Gronkowski ran up a $9,000 tab. How do you spend $9,000 on a party? Well, start with $1,575 worth of Grey Goose vodka and $1,250 of PJ Rose champagne. Add in other assorted alcoholic beverages and some Red Bull, and then a $1,400 tip. Of course, to Gronkowski, spending $9,000 is like a regular person spending $10. He did, after all, make $2.6 million last season.